Hǎi Yóu Jì 海遊記
Record of a Sea Journey by 無名氏 (anonymous, 著)
About the work
Hǎi Yóu Jì 海遊記 is an anonymous Qīng-dynasty vernacular novel in thirty chapters (huí 回). The narrative is set in a fictional maritime world centered on the kingdom of a “Miáo king” (苗王) at the bottom of the sea, weaving together adventure, supernatural encounters, Buddhist and Daoist elements, and moral didacticism. The text is notable for its self-conscious departure from conventional fiction formulae: the author’s preface explicitly disclaims any historical dynasty, any identifiable characters (“no Zhang San or Li Si”), and any conventional plot of talented scholars and beautiful women, framing the entire work as a dream.
Tiyao
No tiyao found in source. (Not a WYG text.)
Abstract
Hǎi Yóu Jì 海遊記 is an anonymous Qīng vernacular novel, author unknown. The text’s preface, signed simply “Guānshūrén 觀書人” (“A Reader”), declares the work a deliberate innovation in fiction: unlike conventional tales that invoke a dynasty, moralize about ruler and minister, or feature scholar-beauty romances or ghost stories, this novel is set entirely in a timeless maritime fantasy realm, the undersea kingdom of the Miáo people. The novel concludes with a dream sequence, which the preface aligns with two precedents: the Xīxiāng Jì 西廂記 and the Shuǐhǔ Zhuàn 水滸傳 as the third major work to resolve with a dream.
The plot follows an adventurer (likely a shipwrecked Chinese traveler) through thirty chapters of sea-travel, encounters with bandits and officials, Buddhist and Daoist adepts, the Miáo undersea court, and moral tests. The final chapter frames the entire narrative as a dream. The title evokes the hǎi 海 (“sea”) motif of late-Qīng maritime adventure fiction, but the content is more aligned with the older tradition of fantastic shénchuán 神川 fiction.
The work is undated in the text itself. Based on narrative style, vocabulary, and thematic concerns, a Qīng composition date in the eighteenth or nineteenth century is plausible, though the precise date cannot be established. The Kanripo text appears to be a printed edition, not a manuscript. No secondary scholarship has been located that identifies the author or provides a firm dating.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.